Investing in you: How to cook up a solid personal brand

There’s never been a better time to invest in YOU than now! With such a saturated digital landscape, building your personal brand helps you stand out…period.

Assemble a brand to stand out in the only way YOU can to future employers and dream clients, and set the stage for building goal partnerships.

What is a personal brand?

A personal brand is a consistent way to share information from yourself with others. A personal brand includes sharing your thought-leadership in a consistant and visual way online and in person. Building a personal brand is about creating a compatible platform for your voice in a way that 100% is ownable by you.

Why do you need a personal brand?

Marketability

Showcasing a consistent and polished online presence can attract the right clients or employers that align with needing exactly what you offer. It also creates a unique way for you to stand out from the crowd of applicants or consultants. Who would you choose, someone who consistently shares who they are and gives a clear depiction of what they offer, or, choose someone based on a few words on a piece of paper… A built brand is a powerful way to position your strengths and personality.

Credibility

A polished personal brand creates weight behind your passion or area of expertise. Sharing your thoughts consistently in your area of focus can create a solid perspective of credibility. Investing in the right colors, graphics, and typographical styles that consistently express your personality through your shared thoughts and ideas provides a polished and thoughtful visual presence.

Stability

Building your personal brand can create stability in your career no matter what happens from employer to employer. Having a strong personal brand can help you build relationships and interest in potential consulting opportunities down the road. You never know what doors could open while on your personal branding journey.

How to create one?

Now that you know what a personal brand is and why it’s important to build one, how do you get started? I always say a great personal brand starts with knowing YOU and what aspects of your personality you want to share and put out there consistently. Start with taking a variety of personality tests and see what traits resonate the most.

According to branding expert and Top-Selling author Martin Lindstrom, it’s important to define one word in building a personal brand. “What is the one word you want to stand for? Everything you do has to be surrounded by that one word because it helps you be consistent.”

I’d even take it a step forward and say, consider choosing a combination of 3 words to give yourself a unique blend of identity that only YOU can display.

I’m an outgoing, creative person, constantly creating and building things in and outside work. However, I’m not the messy artist type; I take pride in a polished appearance and often add bold color combinations in my clothing because I like to stand out in a creative and polished way. So you could say traits I wanted to share in my branding consistently are (1) Creative (2) Bold and Bright (3) Polished. I offer high-end creative consulting services with a flair for brands that want to be trendy yet professional in a crowded digital landscape.

So what traits do you want to share consistently, and how does that translate to what you offer?

Take time to explore your personality and work with a professional brand consultant to tie it together for a consistent visual strategy.